Blood of the Mantis

Stenwold Maker – Beetle-kinden spymaster and statesman

Cheerwell ‘Che’ Maker – his niece

Tisamon – Mantis-kinden Weaponsmaster

Tynisa – his halfbreed daughter, Weaponsmaster

Achaeos – Moth-kinden magician, Che’s lover

Nero – Fly-kinden artist

Arianna – Spider-kinden, Stenwold’s lover, former Rekef agent

Balkus – Ant-kinden, agent of Stenwold, renegade from Sarn

Sperra – Fly-kinden, agent of Stenwold

Thalric – Wasp-kinden, former Rekef major, now renegade

Teornis of the Aldanrael – Spider-kinden Aristos

Gaved – Wasp-kinden mercenary

Felise Mienn – Dragonfly-kinden duellist

Destrachis – Spider-kinden doctor and companion of Felise Mienn

Parops – Tarkesh Ant-kinden soldier, now in exile

Salma (Prince Salme Dien) – Dragonfly-kinden nobleman

Prized of Dragons – formerly Grief in Chains, Salma’s Butterfly-kinden lover

Alvdan II – the Wasp Emperor

Seda – Alvdan’s sister and one surviving relative

Maxin – Wasp-kinden general in the Rekef

Reiner – Wasp-kinden general in the Rekef

Brugan – Wasp-kinden general in the Rekef

Malkan – Wasp-kinden, general of the Seventh Army (the ‘Winged Furies’)

Uctebri the Sarcad – Mosquito-kinden magician, Alvdan’s slave

Gjegevey – Woodlouse-kinden, imperial advisor

Dariandrephos (‘Drephos’) – halfbreed artificer and imperial colonel

Totho – halfbreed artificer in Drephos’s cadre

Kaszaat – Bee-kinden artificer in Drephos’s cadre

Big Greyv – Mole Cricket-kinden artificer in Drephos’s cadre

Scyla – Spider-kinden spy, magician and thief

Lineo Thadspar – Beetle-kinden Speaker for the Collegiate Assembly

Plius – foreign Ant-kinden in Sarn, Stenwold’s agent

Odyssa – Spider-kinden agent of the Rekef

Capitas – capital city of the Wasp Empire

Collegium – Beetle-kinden city, home of the Great College

Commonweal – the great Dragonfly state

The Darakyon – forest, formerly a Mantis hold, now haunted and avoided by all

Felyal – Mantis-kinden hold

Helleron – Beetle-kinden industrial city, conquered by the Empire

Myna – Soldier Beetle-kinden city conquered by the Empire

Sarn – Ant-kinden city allied to Collegium

Spiderlands – Spider-kinden cities south of the Lowlands, believed rich and endless

Szar – Bee-kinden city conquered by the Empire

Tark – Ant-kinden city conquered by the Empire

Tharn – Moth-kinden hold near Helleron

Vek – Ant-kinden city-state hostile to Collegium

The Ancient League – recent alliance of Moths and Mantids from the holds north of Sarn

Arcanum – the Moth-kinden secret service

Assembly – the elected ruling body of Collegium, meeting in the Amphiophos

Battle of the Rails – recent defeat of Sarnesh troops by the imperial Seventh Army

Great College – in Collegium, the cultural heart of the Lowlands

Mercers – Dragonfly-kinden order of knights errant

Prowess Forum – duelling society in Collegium

Rekef – the Wasp imperial secret service.

Shadow Box – a mysterious artefact stolen from Collegium by Scyla

The Wasp Empire has commenced its great war against the Lowlands, capturing the cities of Tark and Helleron and defeating the Ant-kinden of Sarn in a pitched field battle. Now General Malkan’s Seventh Army, the Winged Furies, waits for reinforcements before pressing on to Sarn itself. Malkan’s victory over the Sarnesh was accomplished by a new weapon, the snap bow, devised by the former Lowlander Totho, now an apprentice of the Empire’s foremost artificer.